“It’s not an easy time,” he told the Associated Press at a Michelob Ultra event in Los Angeles. “We all love James and he’s a good friend of ours, but we also really love playing the Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s a complicated situation for everybody. And you know, we just want to move forward and do what’s right and be the best people we can be.”

Gunn was dropped by Disney on June 20 after several troubling tweets resurfaced online that had been posted years earlier by the director. In them, he makes crude jokes involving rape and pedophilia that often nod to current events and pop culture. Shortly after his firing, Gunn apologized for his reckless tweets.

Days later, Pratt tweeted a cryptic bible verse seemingly in response to the PR firestorm surrounding Gunn and his exit from the production. “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters. Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. James 1:19," he wrote.

Pratt also explained to the AP his and his castmates silence immediately after the firing as well as the subsequent press release from the franchise’s cast asking Disney to give Gunn another shot.

“I love going to Comic-Con but I ended up not doing a lot of interviews around that time just because it was so shocking,” he said. “All I know is we put a lot of time, thought and effort into the statement that we released about it. And I think we all kind of want that statement to be essentially what we have to say about it. And we were pretty clear and honest about how we feel.”

The press release from Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper and the rest of the cast read in part: "The character [Gunn] has shown in the wake of his firing is consistent with the man he was every day on set, and his apology, now and from years ago when first addressing these remarks, we believe is from the heart, a heart we all know, trust, and love. In casting each of us to help him tell the story of misfits who find redemption, he changed our lives forever. We believe the theme of redemption has never been more relevant than now. Each of us looks forward to working with our friend James again in the future. His story isn’t over – not by a long shot."